Interfaith Pastor Retiring

An Orange County pastor hailed as a pioneer in interfaith outreach preached his final sermon this week to a standing-room-only crowd of his parishioners, many teary-eyed as they said their farewells, and clergy of all faiths from across Southern California.

The Rev. Robert B. Shepard, 63, is retiring from Anaheim United Methodist Church, where he served for 15 years.

“I’ve certainly had my share of criticism over the years,” said Shepard, a founding member in 1975 of the Orange County chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, now called the National Conference for Community and Justice. He also was co-founder in 1978 of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council, one of the earliest organizations of its kind in Orange County.

His ecumenical approach eventually earned him respect and affection, though, from believers of all faiths, colleagues said.

“Bob modeled what it means to be inclusive long before it was fashionable to do that,” said the Rev. Kenneth McMillan, senior pastor of Los Altos Methodist Church in Long Beach, who spoke at the retirement service. “He opened me up to interfaith dialogue.”

Community members praised Shepard’s sincerity and courage.

“I don’t think his interfaith outreach is strategic,” said Rabbi Mordecai Kieffer, leader of the conservative Temple Beth Emet in Anaheim, who gave Shepard a farewell tribute dinner with 150 guests last week. “I think it welled up wordlessly from his own moral construction. He just can’t help himself from reaching out and loving people, which means learning from them as well as teaching them. His legacy is to love each other because of our differences.”

Shepard, who graduated from the University of Louisville in Kentucky and the Claremont School of Theology in California, was first assigned to Community Methodist Church in Monterey Park. He later was a pastor at First Methodist Church in West Los Angeles and then St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Redondo Beach.

In 1973 he became pastor of Christ Church by the Sea on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula. Shepard honored an agreement the previous minister had drafted to share the sanctuary on Saturdays with Jewish congregation Shir Ha-Ma’Alot Harbor Reform Temple, led by Rabbi Bernard P. King.

“When I first came here 25 years ago, Orange County wasn’t particularly hospitable to the Jewish community,” King said during the farewell tribute to Shepard. “Bob is a man of courage. I’m proud to call him my brother.”

The sanctuary-sharing agreement led to an enduring friendship after the two men were roommates on a two-week interfaith clergy trip in 1975 to the Middle East.

Shepard credits two cultural shifts for helping to open up American clergy to interfaith work: the civil rights movement, which brought together people of all faiths to fight racism; and the Second Vatican Council, at which Catholic officials launched a dialogue with Protestant denominations.

“My whole ministry since the 1960s has been to try and open people’s minds and hearts to other religions and races,” Shepard said. “Prejudice raises its ugly head over and over again. It requires a constant vigilance to teach people that those of other faiths are OK.”

Of his collaboration with King since the Middle East trip he said, “The Jewish community has a strong history of social justice. That input is needed in the religious community.”

Shepard’s outreach has gone beyond the Judeo-Christian community, colleagues said.

“Bob has had the opportunity to reach out to the very significant Muslim community in Orange County,” said Bill Shane, executive director of the 600-member National Conference for Community and Justice in Newport Beach. “The Hindus, Buddhists, Bahais and the Mormon communities have also been touched by the incredible man that Bob is. As Orange County has evolved in the past 25 years, its religious diversity has changed accordingly, and Bob has very much embraced that.”

Shepard said encouraging interfaith dialogue is not easy because people often fear they will water down their own faith if they delve too deeply into others.

Some in his congregation may have been uneasy at first about Shepard’s strong ecumenical approach, but many say they are grateful to him for encouraging them to learn about other religions and attend services of other faiths.

“He exemplifies Christianity,” said Patti Crowell, 62, of Huntington Beach, who attended Christ Church by the Sea when Shepard was pastor there and took part in interfaith events there. “His message is of love and being inclusive.”

Sherry Hanberg, business manager at Shepard’s Anaheim church and his colleague for 15 years, said the staff appreciated that Shepard never preached an exclusive theology and never said there was one right way to pray.

“One thing I’ve always loved about Bob is that he doesn’t try to convert you,” Hanberg said. “If you can get to heaven by being a Catholic, then be a Catholic. He’s very open. He will be a tough act to follow.”

Shepard’s successor will be the Rev. John W. Fanestil from Westchester United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. He begins work the first week of July.

Meanwhile, Shepard, who has put in many six-day weeks of 10-hour days, said he will miss his friends, his flock and many aspects of his ministry but is not sorry to put behind him one of a minister’s most difficult duties: officiating at funerals.

“When I came here 15 years ago, I was burying members,” he said. “Now, I’m burying my friends. That’s been very hard for me.”

With five grown children and one grandchild, Shepard and his wife, Linda, plan to relax and work on some projects together--perhaps write a book--and investigate potential retirement spots. Because they have always lived in Methodist parsonages, the couple does not own a home. They will live in an Anaheim apartment for now and likely will settle in the Midwest.

“I’m going to rest from my ministry for a while,” Shepard said. “I’m going to end that terrible tug-of-war that’s existed for years between the church and my family.”